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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Review ~ It's Always Been You (Coming Home #5) by Jessica Scott

She plays by the rules…

Captain Ben Teague is many things: a tough soldier, a loyal friend, and a bona fide smartass. He doesn’t have much tolerance for BS, which is why he’s mad as hell when a trusted colleague and mentor is brought up on charges that can’t possibly be true. He’s even more frustrated with by-the-book lawyer Major Olivia Hale. But there’s something simmering beneath her icy reserve—and Ben just can’t resist turning up the heat . . .

. . . …and he’s determined to break them

The only thing riskier than mixing business with pleasure is enjoying it…and Olivia can’t resist locking horns—and lips—with Ben. He’s got more compassion in his little finger than any commander she’s ever met—a fact that makes him a better leader than he realizes. But when the case that brought them together awakens demons from Olivia’s past, she will have to choose between following orders—or her heart . . .

A love story built around career military people in thrown
together to fix real issues that the military faces today – it could have been
trite except the author is a career army officer. With that basis how could it go wrong? A
sweet romance about two people thrown together preparing a company for its next
deployment and having to clean up their battalion due to issues with drugs,
gangs, even TBI (traumatic brain injury).

Ben never wanted command. In fact he had been fighting it
for years – cared too much for the men and too little for the politics. Olivia, a military lawyer, assigned to help
keep the new chain of command on schedule getting trouble-makers out of the
army has a history of seeing the army protect the soldier – forgetting their
duty to the family when abuse becomes involved and commanders who use the
loyalty as an excuse to not enforce the rules.

Ben doesn’t really care for the rules. His loyalty is to the
men. When a man that saved his life in
combat ends up with Child Protective Services called on him with the accusation
that he hurts his daughter Ben doesn’t believe it – not possible not the man he
knew – and tries to protect his buddy.
Olivia thinks this is just another commander in the Old Boy school
assuming the worst. Seeing their biplay
as they interact and work to clear the trouble from their group is quite
interesting since Ben comes at it with loyalty and history with the men in his
mindset.

Honestly, it is a sweet love story. Well written, characters
well developed, story written with a writer that has the officer
background. That is worth the read. I will definitely look into other stories by
this author – a man (or woman) in uniform makes a wonderful center to a
romance, or well any novel.

Disclosure: This book was provided to BBMoreB free of charge for the sole purpose of an honest review. All thoughts, comments, and ratings are my own.